In many instances, shelves may be used to support articles of random shape that cannot easily be stacked one upon another. This is particularly true of many of the food packages which can be found in nearly any typical home freezer. It is well known that home freezers are oftentimes used for storage and freezing of food items other than those typically packaged in rectangular shaped cartons or containers, such as the commercially prepared frozen foods bought at supermarkets, and random sized and shaped packages have a propensity for sliding off the packages upon which they are stacked within the freezer and falling to the floor. This can easily result in damage to the plastic breaker strips at the bottom of the freezer compartment. In some instances, a consumer may even be physically injured by reason of the impact of the hard frozen packages.
Because of such hazards, the consumer will commonly stack random shaped packages in an arrangement that slopes upwardly toward the rear of the shelf. The upward and rearward slope succeeds, to a limited degree, in avoiding the tendency for the hard frozen packages to fall from the shelf. Unfortunately, the stacking arrangement needed to accomplish this objective wastes valuable storage space at the front of the shelf.
Among the proposals for overcoming the problems associated with food packages falling from shelves is the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,042, issued to Keith K. Kesling on Oct. 16, 1956, which proposes a swingable auxiliary food supporting shelf. This shelf, when not utilized as a food support, is adjusted and locked in an upright position in front of packaged frozen foods to form a stop for such foods. With the device disclosed in the Kesling patent, the freezer cabinet must be provided with studs or pins which pass through suitable openings in the sidewalls of an inner liner in the refrigerated chamber. These studs, which serve as hinge pins to permit pivotable movement of the shelf, are threaded into a liner reinforcing member, which increase product cost. Additionally, a swingable auxiliary food supporting shelf of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,042 is of no possible benefit to consumers already owning home freezers without this inherent feature.
Another proposed device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,324, issued to Howard P. Moser on Aug. 14, 1973, which utilizes a shelf guard comprised of upper and lower sections. The upper and lower sections are both provided with hooks whereby the shelf guard is adapted to be suspended from the wire elements of a wire shelf. While this arrangement does not require modifications to, or special provisions within, conventional freezer cabinets, it is unwieldy and must be completely removed to gain access to the contents of any particular shelf. The shelf guard must then be set aside during which time articles could inadvertently fall from any of the shelves. Although the shelf guard disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,324 may be useful for its intended purpose, which is retaining food during the limited periods of transport of trailers and mobile homes containing refrigerators, it would have limited utility for day-to-day use in a home freezer.
Still another proposed device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,765, issued to Don O. Cox on Dec. 3, 1974, which utilizes an elongated generally rectangular sheet-like element as a retainer for refrigerators carried in trailers or other vehicles. The lower edge of the retainer is provided with a plurality of slots arranged to receive the wires or rods of a wire refrigerator shelf. While this arrangement permits access to a particular shelf without unnecessarily removing article restraint from other shelves, the retainer must be completely removed from the shelf and set aside in order to gain access to selected articles. The lower edge of the retainer must also be provided with a plurality of slots arranged in the exact spacing of the particular wires or rods forming a certain wire refrigerator shelf. Since the spacing of the wires or rods can vary significantly from shelf to shelf, the retainer arrangement proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,765 is not readily adaptable to the wide variety of wire shelving available in home freezers and the like.
Among other shelf retainers, shelf fences, shelf partitions and the like which have been proposed include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,145,850; 3,608,741; 3,827,574; 3,938,872; and 4,023,682.
In many of the arrangements proposed in the aforementioned patents, one or more of the components, other than the retainer, must be specially manufactured. This renders such retainers unfit for the home freezer after-market. It also unnecessarily adds to the cost of original equipment since modifications to the liners of freezer cabinets, changes in shelving, and other modifications or changes to shelf retainer-shelving combinations require retooling. This results in a retainer which is not readily adapted for use with conventional home freezers. Accordingly, a need has remained for a shelf retainer capable of overcoming the foregoing problems.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a shelf retainer which may be secured to a shelf in at least two positions of adjustment including an article retaining position and an article access position.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a shelf retainer of the type described particularly adapted for multiple position adjustable installation on any of the various types of commonly utilized wire shelving.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a shelf retainer of the type described including a barrier member permitting random shaped packages to be stacked on a shelf for maximum utilization of storage space.
Still another object of the present invention is the provision of a shelf retainer of the type described which may be easily installed on any of the various types of commonly utilized wire shelving without special fasteners or tools.
Still a further object of the present invention is the provision of a shelf retainer of the type described which is unitary and self-contained for both original equipment and after-market home freezer applications.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when the same is considered in conjunction with the accompanyng drawings.